Newsletter #8

Hello Questers!

Welcome winter!

ESB
Students have been working in their band groups on presentations.  One presentation was  via Google slideshow, the other was a poster.  Both of these presentations required assigning roles, reading comprehension, some artistry, and working together!   Next week we will be heading to the woods for some survival skills.  We hope the weather holds up for us!

LA
We finished our Sy Montgomery books.  Students have been working with main ideas and details in their reading. Students wrote summaries, and created posters.  There will be a quiz on summaries next week.  We continued writer's workshop this week which enabled students to choose some of their writing.  We have some good storytellers in our group!  The POW for next week is a free choice, and the students are excited about that!  Next week we will begin our blogs through YWP.

 POWs have started up again.   Please help your student keep on top of these assignments by checking in with them.  The POW (paragraph / paper / prisoner?) of the Week is intended to be a week long assignment.  Each day, students are encouraged to work on a bit of it at home.

Powerschool
You can check on Powerschool to see if your student has any outstanding work.  Most assignments will not have codes, but if they are marked, an orange box  means that it is missing, and a red triangle means that it is late.

Service Learning
We worked more with our service learning this week.  Students mapped out where our 8 sugar maple trees will be planted, or went outside to ask questions about the solar project at our school.  Next Wednesday, we will continue with this work, including planting trees!

Math
This week we worked on multi-digit multiplication and began learning about the order of operations.  The order of operations gave us all a good challenge with some excellent dialogue from our young mathematicians.  There is a very helpful video linked through the Quest website that will walk you through the progression of how students learn multi-digit multiplication.

Math's Mates sheets will be due on Tuesday.  It's never too early to get a jump start on these.  Keep practicing those Math Facts!

Questions to ask:

What service learning project are you working on?
What is the Order of Operations?
What was the main idea of your Sy Montgomery book?
What was your presentation about in ESB?
What was the assembly on Friday about?

Newsletter #7 (10/11/13)

Hello Quest Families!

We are finally through with NECAPS and back to our normal schedule!  Homework will resume this week and you can find the links on the Quest Homework Board. 

Color Groups
Our color groups will be changing at the end of this week.  Students will be with different groups for Language Arts and Math starting the week of October 20th.

Bones and Stones

We started our new ESB unit on Early Humans this week. This unit is an Interact Unit.  Students have been put into cooperative groups called "bands."  In these bands, they will be working on both group and individual projects ranging from research projects to making fire without matches. This week, students worked together to create a group identity, including a group totem, banner, and "stones" bag.  Next week, students will begin to develop presentations on different topics related to Early Humans. 

Math

We are finally back to our regular schedule and well on our way into our exploration of number properties as they relate to multiplication and division.  Students will be getting a NEW weekly assignment called Math's Mates.  This will be due on Tuesdays.  Students who have not passed their multiplication fast facts will still be required to fill in Multiplication Fast Fact Practice sheets.

Language Arts

Students will be finishing up their Sy Montgomery books this week.  Students began their individualized spelling program, and sent off their first epal letters to Germany and Poland!  We are working on non-fiction main ideas / summaries.  The POW for this week is regarding this skill.  Each student received a National Geographic, and can choose from any of the articles to read and to write a summary.

Questions to ask:

What is your band's name for ESB?  Your Stone age name?
What is a square number?
Is your epal from Germany or Poland?
What is one of the words on your spelling list?

Newsletter #6 10/4/13

Hello Quest Families!  

We were glad to see those who could make it to Back-to-School night!  There is so much to cover for fifth grade!  If you were unable to make it, or would like to see the slide shows, you can find them on the Quest website.  The team one is on the front page, there is one for LA, and for math.  The curriculum outline is also posted, so feel free to check it out!

LA: This week we continued our book shares.  Students will be completing a book share once a month about an independent reading book, and will then share their findings with the rest of the class.  Students also completed their bios for their epal.


ESB  This week we will be wrapping up our study of the local ecosystem.  We will also begin a unit on Early Humans.  Our unit will be an Interact Unit, in which students will be divided into small groups to solve problems and complete projects. 

NECAPS  are here! There will be NO Homework during NECAPS.

Tuesday, October 8th from 8 - 9:15
Wednesday, October 9th 8 - 9:15 and 12:45 - 2:20
Thursday, October 10th 8 - 9:15

Please avoid scheduling an appointment for your child during these times.  If your student will be leaving at some point during the day, please make sure we know as soon as possible so we can make other arrangements.   We will not be giving homework during those two weeks.  Good sleep and a good breakfast does wonders for those nights!

Math
We will be starting our new unit, Multiplication and Division Relationships, this week.  Attached is a family letter that introduces some of the concepts that will be covered in this unit.  Success in this unit, as well as many of the units throughout middle school, rely on fluency with multiplication fast facts.  While we will provide students with strategies for studying these facts, we do not set aside class time for fast fact practice.  There are many resources on the Quest website that students can access and use for practice at home.

What was one of the talents displayed at Quest Talent Show?
How did your NECAP testing go?
Tell me about your math project!
What were your results from the crayfish / potato / sunflower lab?  (they chose one of these!)

 
Enjoy your weekend!!